I had the opportunity to sit down with Sasha Fernandez, co-host the Bisexuali-tea podcast, to discuss Bisexuali-tea and queer life at American University. Bisexuali-tea is a podcast published by American University’s publication AWOL and co-hosted by Sasha Fernandez and Rin Ryan that focuses on LGBTQ+ life in college. They have discussed a variety of topics including dating apps, dating violence and coming out. If you don’t listen to this podcast, you are truly missing out. Sasha and Rin’s light-hearted banter never fails to put a smile on my face and take my mind off the stress of schoolwork.
What was your (and Rin’s) inspiration to start Bisexuali-tea?
“We were talking about how there is no media representation of queers in college and about what our dream podcast would be, and we realized it would be a podcast between us.”
You have a pretty big following of your podcast, did you ever expect that? How does it feel?
“The fact that you even listen to it is shocking. I don’t understand that people actually listen to it. It’s a very weird thing for me and Rin; we always look at the numbers and we are like – this is a joke, these are obviously bots downloading it from Spotify. I mean it’s heartwarming though because I’m glad that it has its place. And some people have reached out to us and said we helped them in some way, which is crazy but it’s also good to know that the media representation we are putting out is needed.”
What is something you would want someone to learn from your podcast?
“If you’re in college and you haven’t figured out how you identify or if you do know how you identify and you’re struggling with coming out or whatever, there are people out there you can talk to. There is a community and I always encourage people to, first, see what they’re comfortable with, and then, try and reach out — whether it’s to your local LGBTQ organization, or doing something in your city, or in your college, or even just emailing us. I just always want to tell people that you’re loved and included and I love you.”
What have you learned from being a part of Bisexuali-tea?
“It’s really good to listen back to myself. I didn’t think I could talk this much about my sexuality, but now I realize it’s a really important part of my identity. When I was in high school and just starting in college, I didn’t really have a community to go to, and being able to hear from people (through the podcast) has been an important opportunity for me.”
What are your thoughts on why bisexual visibility day is important?
“I think it’s because a lot of people assume that bisexuality is accepted by the queer community and by the heterosexual community – and that’s just not true. I feel like there are a lot of microaggressions that people can face when they’re coming out as bisexual because they feel like they’re not part of either community. They’re in this weird in-between and I think just trying to normalize sexuality is important so that when people come out it’s not this big thing. I think that we should be normalizing all sexualities and the spectrum of everything, you don’t have to be just bisexual. Also, the timeline of which you come out because you could come out as one thing and realize later on that you don’t identify as that and I think by creating queer calendar weeks it helps people to see news and talk to their friends about it.”
What can people expect for the second season of Bisexuali-tea?
“Well, it’s going to sound better because we finally have a podcast studio, which is amazing. It had literally been recorded in my bedroom, so it is going to sound a lot better. I also think we are going to play with the format a little bit and have guests from all different types of backgrounds. Something we want to focus on this semester, which we weren’t able to last semester, is trans issues. We really tried to reach out and find a guest who could talk about it and we weren’t able to. But we think that we are going to be able to talk to trans folks this year and talk about their experiences on campus. And bi-men. It’s not just a podcast for bisexual people, we don’t want it to be an exclusive space, we are trying to make it more inclusive.”
Whether you are looking for a bisexual community and/or something to brighten your day, Bisexuali-tea is there for you. They post new episodes bi-weekly to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and the AWOL Website.